How to Cut Crown Molding

Having the Right Tools is Necessary for Cutting Crown Molding

Besides learning the basic techniques on how to cut crown molding, it is also important to have the right tools. A miter saw and a coping saw are the two basic tools that are required for cutting crown molding.

The miter saw enables you to make square-cut joints, 45o angled cuts, and scarf joints. The coping saw, as its name implies allows you to make coped joints.

When installing crown molding the corners are joined together via various types of crown molding joints. These joints are fashioned out of mitered or coped cuts.

How to Cut Crown Molding with a Miter Saw When walls are perfectly straight, which is rare, 45o angled mitered cuts can be used on two sections of crown molding stock to form 90o inside corners. Likewise on outside corners, a miter saw is also used to make the 45o angled mitered cuts. The tricky part of using a miter saw to cut crown molding is in knowing how to position the crown molding stock on the miter saw so that the angled cut faces the right direction when installed on the wall.

When walls are not perfectly square, which is frequently the case, it becomes necessary to cope one of the two ends of crown molding sections that forms the 90o inside corner. More specifically, one section of crown molding is square-cut and attached along the length of one wall. Another section of crown molding is then coped on one end and tied into the corner along the adjacent wall. The coped crown molding cut sits over the end of the square-cut piece to form the 90o joint.

How to cut Crown Molding with a Coping Saw Coping crown molding actually requires the use of a miter saw and a coping saw. The section of crown molding that requires a coped cut, first needs to be cut at a 45o angled on the miter saw and then back-cut with a coping saw. How to Cut Crown Molding Scarf Joints Finally, scarf joints are used to marry to lengths of crown molding stock together. A scarf joint is frequently used on long wall lengths. A miter saw is used to create the scarf joint.

The scarf joint is created by cutting one end of each piece of crown molding stock at a 45o angle so that one section overlaps the other section. The result is a much cleaner crown molding cut than just butting two pieces of crown molding stock together.

Practice Making Crown Molding Cuts

Making improper crown molding cuts can quickly add up to a lot of wasted money. Crown molding can cost several dollars per linear foot and one bad cut on just one piece of crown molding stock could cost you $25-50, easily. Repeat this a few times and you may find yourself looking at hundreds of dollars of wasted crown molding material.

In order to prevent spending a fortune in scrap crown molding due to failed crown molding cuts, it is best to spend some time practicing cutting crown molding on a few small pieces of scrap material. Try making several small practice crown molding joints using a couple of pieces of crown molding stock.

To conclude, if you plan on doing your own crown molding installation, make sure you have the right tools and know how to cut crown molding correctly. For your first crown molding installation project, keep it small, use inexpensive crown molding stock and practice making crown molding cuts first.